From Cages to Cuddles
The story of WWU students and their adopted quarantine pets
Written by Hannah VanOvermeiren
Something white just flew past me. It was nothing but a blur, I must investigate. I run over to where it landed, a mere 3 feet away. A small, white stuffed mouse is lying lifeless on its side. This mystery is solved and no longer has my interest.
I lay down on the soft, white carpet and lazily gaze at my surroundings. The Halloween decorations are still up, with white cotton draped on the walls and plastic spiders trapped within. The 5-foot-tall skeleton sits politely in his chair, mouth open, smiling at nothing. Mingling with the spooky decor are the familiar plant vines hanging from the ceiling onto the walls.
This new place is not completely furnished, but it’s starting to feel like home. I stretch and stand to go look for food while Mom comes over to rustle my hair and tell me she loves me.
Charlie the cat hasn’t always had a life as calm or loving as the one he has now. His last home was brought him to the Whatcom Humane Society after an unfortunate incident involving a stepped-on tail and some revenge bites.
The previous owners were an older married man and woman. The husband stepped on Charlie’s tail, and the scared cat lashed out in fear by scratching the thing that had caused him pain — the man’s leg.
The couple became fearful of Charlie and locked him in the spare bedroom for three days without any affection before surrendering him to the shelter for his aggressive behavior.
“He hates men,” Corina Timmins, Charlie’s current owner, says with a beaming smile on her face.
Charlie was in the shelter for several months before his new family found him. The shelter described him as aggressive, an overstimulated loner. Every trait would make a family shy away from choosing him. To Corina, he sounded perfect.
Curly blonde hair with hints of blue falling past her shoulders, Corina’s smile infects the room while talking about those she loves, especially Charlie.
“He’s always there for me, he’s cuddly and his love for us is just unconditional,” Corina said.
After leaving the shelter, Charlie blossomed into a true companion for Corina and her girlfriend Kira, now a family of three.
The small family went through a lot of ups and downs over the summer, and Charlie called a variety of places home. Corina and Kira’s apartment flooded and the three of them relocated to a hotel room for two weeks before moving into a new place. The transition to living in a hotel room while working was not easy for them. But home is where the heart is, and for Corina, that’s wherever Charlie is.
Many pets adopted throughout the COVID-19 pandemic were blessings to those working from home and seeking companionship. A lot of shelter pets have stories like Charlie’s, from rags to riches and from shelter to home.
Charlie — full name Charlie Bartholomew Tonk — with his glowing chartreuse eyes and prominent black stripe down his spine, also suffers from an array of medical problems. Constipation issues plus dietary problems equal a costly concoction of trips to the vet.
He had a fever recently that warranted another vet visit, the fifth time in a year. Corina believes she’s lucky to have the ability to be there for Charlie when he needs her.
The number of registered emotional support animals has been increasing over time. ESAs help their owners by providing comfort and a place of happiness from everyday stress. ESAs are typically prescribed by mental health professionals for people struggling with mental illnesses such as depression, anxiety or certain phobias.
However, ESAs are not service animals and are not afforded the same accommodations. The controversy surrounding ESAs stems from some people taking advantage of the program and registering exotic animals as needed for emotional support on airplanes and in public places.
There have also been cases of people printing ESA certificates for their pets without a recommendation from a licensed professional. This makes it difficult for people with registered service animals needed for their disability or disorder to access public places and have their animal with them without facing backlash.
Charlie is a registered ESA and provides a place of comfort, love and joy for Corina. In return, he receives endless cuddles and toys to play with. The house is his playground as he scurries amidst the cupboards and closets. The unopened ones are his favorite, where he can spend hours opening and closing them with a loud THUMP echoing through the small apartment. At night, the closed blinds take precedence, and he paws at them in the bedroom while his family tries to sleep.
Whatcom Humane Society has been seeing a slight increase in adoptions since the pandemic started in 2020. Both Corina and Kylah Feliciano, a senior at Western Washington University, found their new family members here.
Jinx and Salem, formerly known as Lila and Trouble by the Whatcom Humane Society, were also rescued during the pandemic. In April, two friendly faces visited the brother and sister feline duo after almost two months of being in the shelter. Kylah saw the pair on Petfinder and brought her partner in to meet them.
When people are searching for a family pet, it’s usually the younger, more energetic pets that are adopted first while the older animals are forced to wait for their forever homes. This was the life of the brother-sister pair, until Kylah appeared one rainy afternoon.
“They’d been there since February and we were their first visitors,” Kylah said. “They’re bonded so they were listed as having to go together. I think that in combination with their age didn’t attract many people.”
Jinx and Salem are considered adult-senior cats. The average age of senior pets is 7–10 years old, and ASPCA found that senior animals have an adoption rate of 25% while younger ones have a 60% adoption rate.
Adult and senior animals have a lot of benefits when adopted. Most are familiar with basic commands, they’re usually potty-trained and they often settle into new homes easier. While kittens are absolutely adorable, they can also wreak havoc on a home and take a lot of time to train.
Jinx and Salem are both incredibly sweet kitties, almost too sweet. They’re suspiciously nice and gentle in every way possible. Kylah has a hunch they’re eerily well-behaved because they weren’t treated with kindness in their last home and they fear making mistakes due to past retaliation.
“The biggest learning curve is helping the dynamic duo overcome their fears and make sure they’re happy and healthy,” Kylah said with a smile on her face.
Though their behavior receives an A-plus, the kitties are very vocal and love to talk all day long. Jinx is especially notorious for yowling for food and attention, usually in the bathroom. The acoustics are simply better than the living room or bedroom.
A lot of people don’t consider the responsibility that comes with owning a pet and the long-term commitment it has. It’s like marriage, forever binding until one of you passes. Or until one of you files for divorce and the cat takes your home and all your money, but you were able to keep that really cool sports car you like.
“Sometimes, college students don’t take this level of commitment into consideration and likely come from a home where their parents were willing to hold the majority of responsibility for the pets,” Kylah said. “They’re either lonely and want company, or they want something cute and fun and end up getting bored when the animal gets older.”
Corina believes it completely depends on the student. She knew she could take care of Charlie because of her employment status and is in a position to afford his multiple vet visits and specialty diet while also being home enough to give him the levels of love and affection needed. Kylah adopted Jinx and Salem knowing she would have them for the next 10 years, and is excited by that prospect.
Having an animal can be a blessing, but when it isn’t your pet and instead, your irresponsible roommate’s, issues can start to come up very fast.
They can be your very best friend or absolute nightmares. In the case of Kendra Mitchell, a student at University of Puget Sound in Tacoma, Washington, had the latter experience. Everyone deals with roommates who don’t wash their dishes and are notoriously messy in common areas. But what do you do when your roommate adopts a pet and isn’t ready to take care of it?
Kendra gained two roommates over the summer of 2021; one tall person with short, spiky hair, and one small black cat with glowing green eyes. At first, everything was normal. Then, red flags started to rise all around Kendra.
They describe BMO as a sweet and loving little kitty who thrives in human companionship. He was always well-behaved and offered no real problems, other than being illegally adorable. BMO’s owner was working during the summer and was out of the house often.
“I think they adopted BMO as an emotional support animal during the pandemic, just to have someone around,” Kendra said with a tone of empathy in their voice.
Kendra remembers feeling responsible for the black shadow following them around the house. Being the first one awake in the mornings, they started feeding BMO. This slowly morphed into Kendra also feeding him at night, and ultimately taking on responsibility as the food-handler to a cat they loved, but wasn’t theirs.
The biggest issue came about two months after the roommates started living together. BMO started struggling with incontinence and the owner didn’t clean it up. Kendra recalls coming home from a week-long vacation to the entire shared house smelling like cat urine.
“It was late July and you could tell no one had bothered to clean it up. Imagine a shut-up house with cat pee on the rug, marinating in the hot July sun for a week. I couldn’t take it,” Kendra said, still shuddering from the memory.
The roommate struggled with money and vet visits were expensive and difficult to make ends meet with. After one vet appointment and prescribed medications that weren’t given effectively, BMO’s owner left for their own vacation, leaving their roommates in charge of the cat for a week.
Kendra, having grown up with cats their entire life, assumed this responsibility and continued to feed and care for BMO.
“I remember the first day I cleaned his litterbox. It looked like it hadn’t been touched in weeks,” Kendra said. “It was pretty small to begin with, but there’s no wonder he wasn’t using it and was peeing on everything else. He didn’t have a space to go to the bathroom.”
By the time they realized the root of the issue, it was too late, as BMO already had a serious bladder infection. Kendra called the roommate to tell them he needed another vet appointment immediately, but the roommate didn’t have the money and their parents refused to help, saying, “You wanted this cat, now be responsible.”
Kendra doesn’t know if the roommate still has BMO. They say they think about him all the time. He was a very sweet cat, and they loved him as their own, since he was their responsibility all summer.
Kendra’s story is one of many from those with roommates and pets. This is the exact situation Corina and Kylah both avoided by assuming full financial, emotional and physical responsibility.
Cats, dogs, birds, colorful fish and reptiles who require special heating elements year-around all deserve so much care and love. Everyone went through a once-in-a-lifetime experience these past few years, one that so many generations have never had to face — a global pandemic. Our pets are there for us everyday, and it’s time we’re there for them.
